Reasonable Doubts

By Gianrico Carofiglio

A man gets sixteen years for smuggling drugs into Italy. Guerrieri takes on the appeal, discovers the accused was a neo-Fascist thug, and ends up in bed with his beautiful half-Japanese wife...the gnawing boredom of routine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Release date: Oct 18, 2007
• ISBN: 9781913394219

Gianrico Carofiglio

Gianrico Carofiglio is one of Italy’s bestselling authors. He has written short stories, novels, and essays that have been widely translated. He was previously a member of the Italian parliament and an anti-Mafia prosecutor in Bari. His books have sold more than five million copies in Italy.

Reviews for Reasonable Doubts

[richardderus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Review: 35 of seventy-fiveTitle: [REASONABLE DOUBTS]Author: [[GIANRICO CAROFIGLIO]]Rating: 4.875* of fiveThe Book Report: Third in the Guido Guerrieri Italian legal procedural thrillers, this outing finds Avv. Guerrieri tilting at windmills again, with a twist: He's running an investigation into the client's story. He's taken the case of an imprisoned drug courier who insists he's innocent of knowingly transporting 40 kilos of cocaine from Montenegro back to Bari in the car carrying himself, his wife, and their small daughter. He was a small-time crook before, yes, and (unknown to the client) was even a nasty Fascist gang-bully in the 1970s who beat young Guido up in the street. But to imperil his own wife and daughter by doing something so stupid as to run a hundred pounds of cocaine across international borders?! Never!But word in the prison-yard is that Avv. Guerrieri is a good one, a lawyer who does the job he's hired for, and makes the case work for the client. This time, though, Guido faces something a little bit tougher than just a client probably guilty and just denying it out of embarrassment at involving his family, or even the long-ago beating he got at the client's hands (which the client's clearly forgotten): Don Quixote de Guerrieri has met his Dulcinea, the client's beautiful half-Japanese wife Natsu.And here Guido Guerrieri is, single and everything, since Margherita left for New York and a new life (the rat!). And here Natsu is, unsure of her husband's innocence, unsure of her future, unsure of how to tell her daughter that Papa's not coming home from his business trip until 2025...what can you expect a woman to do when a handsome older gent with sad eyes and a penchant for reading strange books, a sophisticated palate that can really appreciate her cooking, and a way with soothing her deeply unhappy daughter's nightmares falls into her lap?In the end, as always, Guido sees justice served, and sees his services amply rewarded in the process by solidifying his excellent reputation among the criminal classes, with the local narcotics officers, and the Italian judiciary, all at the same time. Not for the first time, Carofiglio weaves a believable resolution to a plot he seems to have set in motion specifically to challenge the clockwork universe into crushing our Don Quixote hero with the windmill blades.My Review: At the end of the last book, Guido and Margherita were celebrating Christmas together! He'd even jumped out of a plane to impress her! And in one short passage at the very beginning of this book, Carofiglio dispatches her to the same place that all happy-making things go in the lives of hard-boiled sleuths. I was a little bit surprised at first, then I remembered the cardinal rule of noir: No one is happy for long.A doomed affair with a client's wife is a great noir touch, too. No one even moderately sentient can doubt for a second that, once Natsu appears, Guido's going to succumb to her and that she's going to offer up the goods. All progresses apace, and the expected complications ensue; and perhaps that's why this installment isn't quite so thrilling to me as the previous two. I suspect that the far greater emphasis on the investigative parts of the case as opposed to the actual court arguments and examinations might contribute to my lack of superhappy. But the elements are there, just in smaller proportion to previous outings. All I can hope is that the series doesn't become all PI instead of procedural.I really like the translations of these books, I must say, since they give me credit for being intelligent enough to need the occasional reinforcement of the book's Italian setting by using actual Italian in some non-critical but very practical ways. My favorite example is the characters calling each other, when culturally necessary for them to do so, by their job titles, eg Guido being called "Avvocato" or "Lawyer-man" in professional contexts, exactly as they would in Italy. Grace notes like this are very important to my sense of pleasure in a book, and greatly enhance my willingness to read more of the series.I continue to enjoy these books, and wait eagerly for the next installment. That's saying something from a man whose "to be read" shelf has over 1000 titles on it.

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Defense attorney Guido Guerrieri continues to battle injustice in this episode of the series. Hired to defend a former nemesis, his moral conflicts again arise as he tries to thread the ethical issues of guilt/innocence vs the rule of law. Returning from vacation with his wife and child, the client is arrested as he drives off a ferry and re-enters Italy after authorities discover and vast amount of illegal drugs stashed in his car. Guido has previous childhood memories of personal (unpleasant) interactions with this client, who appears oblivous of the episode.Guerrieri must walk a tightrope between his personal antipathy toward the client, his attraction to the client's wife, and his confusion and doubts about not only his client's guilt or innocence, but also how to proceed. The author deftly paints a picture of the Italian legal system (very different from the US) while letting us feel the tension and confusion Guido is personally dealing with. The story is well written with a balance of personal and procedural explanations leading to an acceptable resolution. Best read after the first two books in the series.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Guido Guerrieri takes on another difficult case in the third series outing. It will be difficult to appeal his client's conviction on a drug charge because his client initially confessed to the crime. Guerrieri must also face some personal difficulties. He remembers his client as a bully who tormented the younger Guerrieri during high school. Guerrieri is also developing feelings for his client's wife.Guerrieri wrestles with ethical questions in this case, as well as guilt when he falls on the wrong side of the line. He is a refreshing change from the often too good to be true central figures in many series, who either never make mistakes or find ways to justify their wrong behavior. The legal arguments and courtroom strategies are well written and should please most legal thriller fans.

[joycepa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Margherita has left Guido, ostensibly for a “short-term” job (read, at least one year) in New York for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to design for an internationally renowned firm. Guido, at 42, then goes into a classic mid-life crisis. At which vulnerable point, in walks a beautiful Japanese-Italian woman who wants Guido to take on what looks like the hopeless case of her husband, who is accused of smuggling drugs across the border into Italy--a lot of drugs. Already in prison, he wants Guido to take on his appeal.Not only is the case bad enough, but the husband/suspect, Fabbiro RayBans, is someone out of Guido’s own childhood, a Fascist punk who delighted in beating Guido up when the latter was 12 and who was suspected in the murder of one of Guido’s acquaintances.Guido is torn by any number of emotions, not the least of which is taking on the case and losing it so that this nemesis from the past--with the beautiful wife who then would be available--would disappear for 12 long years. All this is combined with Guido’s usual melancholy reflection which does mean pages of self-examination and agonizing, Italian style. The book drags at that point. But it’s when Guido enters the courtroom he comes into his own. We are never in doubt what he’s going to say, as far as approach; what we never expect is exactly how he’s going to present his case. It’s extremely well done.Even so, there’s a bit too much inner conflict going on though this book for me; it truly slowed the story down and as opposed to his two previous books, really didn’t add much to the story--we’ve heard it all before from Guido.Still, a good read for the courtroom drama, which is very well done.